Biographical Sketch of Frederick W. Smith, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, MO
>From "History of Buchanan County, Missouri, Published 1881, St. Joseph
Steam Printing Company, Printers, Binders, Etc., St. Joseph, Missouri.
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Frederick W. Smith, was born in Prussia, October 3, 1815. He received
his early education in his native town, and afterwards entered a mili-
tary academy, where he was engaged as a civil engineer. When eighteen
years of age he emigrated to America. Landing in New York in 1833, he
remained there almost a year, and then removed to New Orleans, where
he was employed in a cotton press. Owing to the breaking out of yellow
fever in that city, he embarked on the Mississippi River, and came to
St. Louis, where soon after his arrival he was appointed Deputy City
Surveyor. In 1838 or 1839 he left St. Louis for the Platte Purchase,
and settled at Blacksnake Hills, now St. Joseph. Here he engaged in
farming and surveying, having made the original maps of St. Joseph, and
named it after the founder of the city, Joseph Robidoux. Mr. Smith
pre-empted 160 acres of land, upon which the city now stands, and which
has been divided and subdivided and sold at different times. Mr. Smith
was a Captain of the militia for a number of years, and was afterwards
made a Major of the State Volunteers. He was appointed the first Post-
master of the City of St. Joseph. In 1861, he was elected Mayor of the
City. His last office was that of Judge of the Buchanan County Court,
his term ending in 1876. He married Miss Jane Tolin, of Davis County,
Missouri, in 1843. They have three children: Frederick, Augustus M.
and a daughter, the wife of John A. Duncan, of Kansas City.
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